Sounds to me like it's on its last breath. The important thing now is a speedy burial ceremony and then you have to find a successor quickly. I am certain many other pretender Lychees are already maneuvering for a seat on the throne. Show no mercy. Execute them one and all. Then your new emperor Lychee has to consolidate the boarders of its empire. Quick and decisive action is the only thing that can save your Lychee empire from crumbling.

I'd remove what there is of the spike if possible. They are very succeptible to over fertilization. They also need frequent watering, which means the fert gets watered in often. Lychees are fairly delicate from my experience. How often were you watering it? Was it mulched?

Gary

Gary: I tried digging into the soil to find the spike to remove, but it was all gone. I was watering it 2-3 times each week and no it wasn't mulched until a last week. I was mulching a large area and never got to it soon enough I guess. Should I try to water it every day now? Really hope it will come around. Here are a couple of pictures. The leaves already had the dried up tips when I took it home. Wondering what causes that. Thanks for the help.

Bananafan, since you just recently planted it, have you thought about just digging it out.
You could try to just very heavily water the plant to leach out any of the fertilizer, may work or may do the complete opposite.
It looks like it should recover. I had one experience with Emperor. I got one for my aunt. For a week she had left the plant outside in direct sun without watering it. Which isn't much of a problem usually except that week we had temps in the mid 90Fs for several days, high 80Fs teh rest of the time. The soil was almost completely dried out. The leaves shriveled and dropped. I didn't think it was going to make it but after watering it, the plant eventually recovered after several weeks and sent out a bunch of nice new growth.

Wow, what a great suggestion, Eggo. I wouldn't have thought of the idea myself. It makes sense to remove the plant away from the over fertilized soil. The spike disintegrated and that's what makes it more tricky. I'll put it in a pot first until the ground is safe for it to return there. How long you think I should wait before the fertilizer is completely spent in the ground? Also, what is the water requirement for a young lychee like that (now that it's going to be in a pot)? And finally, what kind of potting soil should I use? Should I just dig some regular dirt out of the ground, or should I use pottng mix with some time release in it? I'm glad to hear of your aunt's lychee. I'm hoping for the best for mine too. And thanks so much for the tips. I'll post picture of it--hopefully when this poor thing survives and thrives.

If you gonna dig it, I would try very hard to keep that rootball intact. Pot it up in a larger pot than it was in before just for easier handling, might just be difficult squeezing it into the same pot without damaging some stuff. I would use a well drain potting mix, one without any added fertilizer.=) Or even a cactus mix, something that will drain fast. Water very very heavily to try to leach some of those aweful fertilzer out. Water heavily again for the next couple of days. Then you could go back to a normal watering schedule, not sure what that would be for a lychee maybe water every couple of days. Keep the plant shaded until it recovers then you would go ahead and plant it back.
I would recommend just digging out that soil. I'm sure you mixed in a good mulch. Maybe use it on your older trees, they will probably like the fertilzer. And by the way, her tree did fine and better than mine after that incident. It was potted at the time which was why the soil dried up so fast. It recovered very well nd sent out lots of new growth, so it has some toughness in them.

Eggo,

The latest update with my Emperor lychee: it lost all its leaves. I don't know if it's dead now--only stem and branches left ... Should I try to keep it and hope for the best? Thanks again.

Keep it!! Just hope for the best. As long as the stems don't start showing signs of shriveling and dehydration, I think the plant should recover.

Hi bananafan,

I was wondering if you have an update on how your Emperor lychee tree is doing. Since it's been almost 2 months, I was hoping it has come around and maybe have some new growths? I hope it's on its way to a full recovery. Good luck!

How much sun is it getting? Whenever I order seedlings they seem to like the shade for a bit. You probably did this though.
Slice one of the stems and see if it's green inside.

puglvr1,

Thanks for the follow up. Sorry to say that it doesn't look good at all. Over the past two months, it has been sitting in a pot under some shade. I've been giving it water sparingly. Today, I went out to look at it again and decided to snip off some of the branches to see if there's still life in there. They all look dry and dead to me. I want to believe that it will come around, but looks like I'll have to assume and perhaps accept that it's dead and gone now. I don't know if I'll try to plant another Emperior again. Maybe I will at some point in the future.
So, what's your experience with lychees like? Have you planted an emperor before?

Hmmm...this relationship is over...time for a new 'Sweetheart.'

Hi Bananafan,

Sorry to hear about your Emperor,for what its worth,from what I have read here the Lychee is one of the pickies
and sensitive trees to get going, supposedly it will get easier with age. That is why I am babying mine till it gets more established. I'm very new to Lychee growing just planted an airlayered Sweetheart and Brewster 6 and 8 weeks ago. The time I planted it we were having 20 to almost 30 mph winds for almost a month. The nursery suggested I put stakes up and wrap burlap, or shade cloth around it to protect it. I figured it can also convert very easily when its time to protect it from frost. We occasionally get a couple of days of 32 or below in the winter. All I have to do is throw a blanket over it. I enclosed a couple of pics. I Also have several Mangos planted,that's a cogshall mango and my pug, Max.

Well, maybe your tree will surprise you,just keep watering it and see what happens in a few weeks,Hope for the best..

Stressbaby, that is very Cute... "Hmmm...this relationship is over...time for a new 'Sweetheart." By the way I learned a lot from reading your posts on "lessons learned from growing Lychees. So "Thanks" so much for your very helpful info.
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bananafan, I'm sad to see that the plant hasn't done well. My experience with the emperor variety is that its seems to be rather successful in my area. This is the 2nd year it set fruits, maybe about 2 dozen fruit on a 4 foot plant. For the most parts, many varieties don't set fruit too well here.

Thanks to all of you for your kind concern. I've learned my lesson with fertilizers. I have a Carrie mango now. Ever since I planted it a couple of months ago, I only gave it a light fertilizing once. It has sent out some new growth, but lately it has stopped growing.

With my Lychee Brewster. It has not grown--everything remains the same since 5-6 months ago. It is so weird. It looks just like a stature (a lychee stature that is). I see some little new sprouts, but those were all dried up. The leaves are not dropping or anything like that, but it just stalls. At the same time I gave my Emperior the spike, I also gave this Brewster a spike. But the stalling happened way before the spike was given.

On the other hand, my Lychee Mauritius is a happy camper. I think it was given a spike also. After what happened to my emperor, I decided to stop playing around with any fertilizer and let the plants rest for a while. However, although Brewster has sent out new growth, it has not sent out any blooms. Last year, both the Mauritius and Brewster and even the Longan sent out blooms and fruited. I think the fact that Mauritius and Longan are not blooming this year is because I've relocated them.

If any of you has any advice for me (especially on why my Brewster is doing nothing for 5-6 months) and with regards to fertilizing and watering for lychees, longans and mangos, I would greatly appreciate it.

By the way, puglvr1, both your plants look very healthy and your pug is way too cute!

On the lychees, I'd use a complete, slow release fertilizer with minors, give it a light, but even sprinkling to all areas of its drip zone. I'm not too enthused about fertilizer spikes, seems like limited coverage, perhaps too much in one small spot, which is not the objective. Since its June now, your Brewster should be on at least its second growth flush if you're in a warm, humid location. My new Brewster and Ohia are both flushing now, and my sweetheart is on its third flush of the year. I assume its receiving adequate waterings at least twice a week, depending on your soil drainage, mulch, etc. Take heart, its roots probably arent' stagnant. I've had plants do this with very little leaf growth, but when its time came, they did great. It must have enough energy reserve to signal itself to send out a new flush.

Gary